


A Matter of Trust

by ImpossibleSH



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Green Arrow - All Media Types, The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Fluff, Implied Allenbert, M/M, Olivarry big bang 2016, basically an OTA and OTF night out, implied coldflash, sort of angst but mostly fun stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 03:11:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8828164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImpossibleSH/pseuds/ImpossibleSH
Summary: “Well actually, if you had meta-humans around here like we do at home, you’d just have to have us here more often, no?” Barry glanced at Oliver’s face, looking for a hint of amusement.The rest of the group laughed, each one imagining a different scenario going all wrong if Team Flash actually had to permanently stay in Star City. Oliver turned his head to look at Barry, not as much with amusement, but with affection. “Guess I’ll have to get me some Meta humans then.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> The story is set somewhere in the first half of Flash s3 and Arrow s5, before the crossover. Basically how I'd like it to happen if OTA (original team arrow) and OTF (same but flash) would all have dinner together. Obviously it was written for the Olivarry Big Bang event, I loved participating, it's been a blast!

**Oliver**

“…And that’s how we found out I can do more pull-ups on the salmon ladder than Oliver can.”  
“For real? Man, Dig, that is awesome.”  
Diggle smirked. “Maybe you should try it next time you come around to the lair, Cisco.”  
Cisco chuckled as he shoved six French fries into his mouth. “Uh, no thank you.”  
“I’d love to see Barry actually do it, for once.” Oliver teased and glanced at Barry, sitting next to him on the wide leather seat.  
For once, Barry didn’t take the bait. “You’re just still upset that I beat you every time we went at it.”  
Oliver’s response was a mere narrow-eyed glare only visible to Barry next to him. Unlike most of his famous smolders, this one was intended to be more teasing and amused than any other expression he usually wore on his face. By the way the speedster looked back at him, his eyes reflecting the light from the candle sitting on the table and biting his lip as invisibly as Oliver glared, the latter knew he had succeeded in getting his message across.  
“I still cannot believe you fought each other just to see who was better.” Caitlin remarked.   
“And didn’t let us watch?” Cisco added quietly.  
OTA and OTF were having a dinner at a small bistro in Star City together. When Felicity realized they only ever seemed to see each other in times of crisis, she decided they needed more quality time together.  
“We obviously love hanging out with them, and spending time is very good for teamwork and having a better understanding of each other.” She had said at the time, using her most convincing tone while letting know Oliver and Diggle about the upcoming get-together.   
Diggle was always happy to do such things, but Oliver didn’t seem very excited about it for some reason.   
“We know them pretty well, don’t we? And you go to Central City all the time anyways, Felicity.” Oliver knew his tone might be alarming to his two best friends, but on the other hand, they still sometimes thought he was joking when he was completely serious. This time he wasn’t joking either, but he couldn’t tell them the truth. What else was new?  
At that point in their friendship, Felicity was so done with Oliver’s antisocial shit. “Caitlin, Cisco and Barry are gonna meet us at that new place across the street from Palmer Tech on Friday night, Oliver. And you’ll be there.”  
Now, Oliver seemed to be enjoying the dinner at least as much as everyone else was. Of course, when Felicity asked how they already finished a whole bottle of red wine before the main course arrived, Oliver didn’t say a word. His smile lasting for more than five seconds was giving it away, because happy Oliver generally seemed too good to be true. When Caitlin told a story about how she ended up one night with Barry at a karaoke bar, he laughed just a bit too loudly, and could tell everyone else was enjoying his current joyful state a little too much.  
They were now way past desserts, almost the last guests at the restaurant, just enjoying each other’s company— and sharing ridiculous stories of their vigilante life that they finally had someone to share with.  
“Mr. Diggle, how is King Shark doing?” Caitlin inquired, always concerned about their human-turned-animal metas.  
Diggle took a sip of water. “I don’t really know… You should probably ask Lyla. Last time I checked he was someplace worse than Oliver’s island prison.”  
“I still can’t believe you actually fought a super intelligent shark, Barry.” Felicity commented. “Imagine what it’d be like if we had all your metahumans in Star City…”  
Barry shrugged. “I mean, you guys did fight a magician or something at the time. Right? What even was Damien Darhk?”  
“To me he always just seemed like the kind of guy you don’t want near your kid, am I right?” Cisco shivered and raised an eyebrow, waiting for someone to cooperate with his pedophile theory. Instead, all he got was Oliver’s most threatening glare and Barry wide-eyed with a why-did-you-have-to-go-there expression on his face.   
“Well actually,” Barry chuckled after a few long minutes of awkward silence, playfully pushing Oliver’s shoulder with his own. “If you had metahumans around here like we do at home, you’d just have to have us here more often, no?” He cheekily glanced at Oliver’s face, looking for a hint of amusement.  
The rest of the group laughed, each one imagining a different scenario going all wrong if Team Flash actually had to permanently stay in Star City. Oliver turned his head to look at Barry, not as much with amusement, but with affection. “Guess I’ll have to get me some Meta humans then.” He said almost silently.  
It was when the scientists started talking about the best methods to track speedsters and how to enhance the STAR Labs Metahuman jail that Oliver decided it might be a good time to get going. Unfortunately, he sat at the corner of the table, with Barry sitting very closely on the leather couch to his right, and Diggle on the other side of the table’s corner to his left. There was no good way of leaving cash on the table and discretely getting the hell out of there. He felt a hint of a headache starting to evolve at the back of his head. It was his fault, he could’ve skipped that last glass of wine.   
“You okay, man?” Diggle asked when he saw Oliver’s distressed expression.  
Oliver rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. For sure.”  
“You seem a little… trapped?” Diggle pointed at the speedster’s direction, who seemed uncharacteristically quiet.  
Oliver opened his mouth to deny it, then closed it again. It was pointless. Diggle had some kind of a sixth sense when it came to Oliver. He just always knew when something was off.   
“Barry?” Felicity said, but no response came. Barry was looking down at his lap, his mind wandering somewhere far away. “Barry!” she tried again, louder.  
Barry jumped, banging his knee on the table. “Ow!... yeah?”   
Felicity cleared her throat. “We were just talking about Wally here, and I wanted to know how you feel about training him, but um, you look kinda weird.”  
“Uh-huh, yeah, it’s been cool. Great kid.”  
Oliver peaked at Barry from the corner of his eye. He looked like a lost puppy having a nervous breakdown, which just made Oliver want to hug him. Instead of saying anything, he looked across the table at Caitlin and Cisco, who were undeniably having a silent conversation with Barry. Oliver wasn’t the best at reading people’s facial expressions, but in his mind it went something like:   
Cisco: All good bro? You look like you need a drink.  
Caitlin: Cisco, I don’t have Barry’s flask here anyway.   
Cisco: I know all of his secrets and I might just share them  
Caitlin: I am the adult here and I forbid you to. We should go home and rest.  
Barry: I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. Let’s go?  
“OK, we’ll take off now, I think.” Caitlin said apologetically as the Team Flash members started getting up.   
“Yeah, it’s getting late. Hope you don't miss to the last train to Central.” Felicity smiled and put her Palmer Tech credit card on the table. “Don’t worry about it, I got this.” She said when her friends began pulling out their wallets to pay.  
“Wait, so you all still take the train?”  
“Um, duh. Did you actually think Barry carries us both wherever we go, Dig? Though, Caitlin, that would be such a great...“  
Oliver heard his friends’ loud voices twenty feet ahead of them, walking out of the restaurant. He zipped up his jacket, crossed his arms on his chest and observed Barry’s face for the millionth time this evening.   
“Listen, Ollie, I didn’t mean…”  
“It’s okay, Barry. You made up your mind. I understand.”  
Barry swallowed. “That’s not what I meant to say. I… listen—“  
“I think they’re waiting for you.” Oliver nodded towards the other side of the street, where Cisco and Caitlin were standing, freezing in the cold air and ready to head towards the Star City central station.  
Barry opened his mouth to speak, and gave up. Oliver didn’t have the energy to deal with him right now. He just looked down at his feet and breathed out slowly. “Bye, Barry.”  
“… Bye, Oliver.”

 

**Barry**

When Caitlin announced that Felicity had gotten in touch and invited Team Flash for dinner in Star City, Barry wasn’t crazy for the idea, to say the least.  
“Cait, can we really afford to have a night off in Star right now? We're so busy with Savitar, and Alchemy, and a new Meta could appear at any given moment, and you know Team Arrow is pretty damn busy too…”  
“Actually,” Caitlin got up from the computer desk and paced towards him. “We haven’t heard from Alchemy in weeks, and Savitar seems to take a break too. I don’t see a reason not to go. Cisco?”  
“Good food, booze, good people. I’m always game for that!”  
Out of all six of them, Barry was probably the worst at hiding his feelings, but fortunately, he was also natural optimist. He only had to convince himself on the train to Star that everything would be fine- and it was. He was happy to have some time off, was happy to see his friends, and was certainly happy that somehow, the only seat left for Oliver (who was late as usual) was right by his side.  
Oliver’s immediate reaction was downing a whole glass of wine in one go, which was concerning but also hilarious for Barry to watch. His pastime during dinner was counting how many glasses Oliver had, and quite enjoyed watching him unwind for a change. Barry was the only one drinking coke, as per usual, because alcohol obviously had no effect on him and red wine wasn’t his cup of tea anyway (a/n: of course it wasn’t his cup of tea, it was a glass of wine.)(… I am sorry for that.)  
Oliver kept asking all these questions about Joe’s and Iris’ wellness, or everything was at the CCPD. Barry was not only enjoying the casualness of the whole thing, but felt it was certainly an improvement from the last conversation they had… or, more precisely, didn’t have. When suddenly he felt the archer place his hand on his left knee he was somewhat confused, in a good way, but not very surprised. He had been afraid of a much worse scenario, so this was pretty enjoyable for Barry. He put his own hand over Oliver’s on his knee, lightly pressing their fingers together. Oliver kept his stare at a point across the table, but Barry noticed a sneaky smile spreading across his lips.  
“… You’d just have to have us here more often, no?”   
As soon as Barry said the words, he felt like he had crossed some sort of line. But when Oliver responded with “Guess I’ll just have to find me some metahumans, then”, that was when he had a mini panic attack.   
When Felicity’s invitation had come and he had refused to go, it was because he was imagining a worst case scenario, one where Oliver won’t talk to him, won’t talk to anyone, or simply won’t come, all because of him. What was happening now was the opposite of all that, and Barry never imagined Oliver would be so implicit in such a short period of time. The latter’s fingers had been trailing up and down Barry’s thigh for half an hour now. Something was wrong. It had to be. What the hell was going on?  
He shut down his eyes for a very short moment while chewing on his lower lip, as if he had no idea what he was doing. He did have no idea. But he grabbed Oliver’s hand, held it in the air under the table for a second, then took and placed it on the cold leather between them. His fingers lingered just for a moment over Oliver’s, the he put both his hands on the table.  
Oliver’s smile- which he wore for the whole evening for the first time in ages- was erased in a matter of seconds. Barry could feel the air between them turning cold. What was he doing? Did he ever stop to think about the implications of his actions? No, because he was a fucking idiot, wasn’t he? (a/n: I mean, we all know how Flashpoint happened.) Couldn’t he, just for a day, have someone else in control of his life so he didn’t need to? Life would be so much easier for him if he didn’t have to make all these decisions by himself.   
“Barry? Barry!”  
The speedster had no idea for how long he was dazing off, but as he heard Felicity’s wakeup call he accidently super-speeded his knee into the table. “Ow!... yeah?”  
Felicity cleared her throat. “We were just talking about Wally here, and I wanted to know how you feel about training him, but um, you look kinda weird.”  
“Uh-huh, yeah, it’s been cool. Great kid.”  
For some reason Barry found a concerned Caitlin and an amused Cisco staring at him. Somehow this turned into a silent conversation that went something like:   
Barry: Aaaare you guys ok?  
Cisco: We? You all good bro? I think I know what your deal is.  
Caitlin: Cisco, this is not the place for that.  
Cisco: Oh like you don’t want to harass him about it.  
Caitlin: We’ll take the train home and have a long heart-to-heart about Barry’s problems.  
Barry: I hate you guys. Let’s go.   
“OK, we’ll take off now, I think.” Caitlin said apologetically.  
The three scientists were sitting in a train car on the way to Central City. They spent the first thirty minutes of the ride in complete silence, each of them refusing to be the one to start a conversation. Caitlin was going for the he’ll-tell-us-when-he’s-ready method, while Cisco got bored and stared at Barry, hoping he’ll start talking. Barry obviously noticed Cisco staring, but he preferred to ignore it and keep watching the rain pouring down outside. Finally, Cisco spoke up.  
“Dude, wanna tell us what that was all about?”  
Barry snuggled up in his coat, his fingers still freezing cold from the weather outside. “I don’t know what you’re referring to.”   
Cisco snorted. “Oh, don’t you?”  
“I’m really not in the mood for this.”  
“I think what Cisco is trying to say,” Caitlin interrupted softly. “I that we hate to see you… suffer like that. And yes, neither of us have had the most successful love lives, to say the least, but we know how to recognize… you know…”  
Barry raised his eyebrows with a tired question in his eyes. He noticed he had started biting at his fingernails unconsciously.   
“It’s the way you look at each other, Barry. The affection… it’s undeniable.”  
“Indisputable.” Cisco added.  
Silence. Nail-biting. Glossy eyes.  
Caitlin continued, wearing her most comforting smile, “Something happened between the two of you, something you’re not telling us about.”  
“You shouldn’t be sulking because of this, Barry, it’s not healthy, and I know what I’m talking about.”  
Barry let a sharp breath out. The air was shaking in his lungs, anxiety starting to flow inside. “What do you want me to say, huh? That this has been going on for weeks now? You want me to tell you that we spent a night together? Cause yeah, we did.” He finished and bit his lip with regret.  
His friends seemed dumbfounded. “I thought it was just sexual tension, man…” Cisco admitted quietly.   
“Do you… want to tell us more about it?” Caitlin suggested.  
Barry sighed. No point in hiding anything now. “Oliver and I slept together. It was one night a few weeks ago. It was a terrible day at work, I was crazy worried about the implications of Flashpoint and you guys finding out about your lives there, we just had a clash with Dr. Alchemy, I was- I was upset about how things went with Julian, you know, when he turned me down after the date...”  
Caitlin stroked his hand. “Oh, Barry…”  
“And Oliver was the one I always went to for advice. For encouragement. For comfort. So I went to Star City, we talked about… about nothing at all, and he was…” He couldn’t help a small smile remembering that night. “He was simply Oliver.” He shrugged helplessly and sighed.   
“It just... happened. I never told him about Julian. Back then I didn’t know that the Julian thing would fall apart, I still thought… he might not hurt me that bad. I woke up and felt like it was all a mistake, like I was fooling Oliver, and he didn’t deserve that. I left without saying goodbye.”   
“I haven’t seen him or talked to him until tonight. I assumed he’d be distant and cold—“  
“I think that’s another ex of yours.” Cisco whispered quickly.  
“Thanks for reminding me of that tragedy of a relationship” Barry blinked. “But anyway, he was… happy. To see me, I mean. I didn’t see what was going on before it was too late. I wanted time to think it through before I ended up hurting him or something, and him distancing himself from me for good, but… guess it’s too late now.”  
After they took a moment to digest the story, Caitlin opened her mouth. “Barry, you have to go tell him all that.”  
“What? No!”  
“Don’t you see? You have to! He just needs to understand your point of view, that’s all.”  
Barry jumped to his feet. Finally, someone taking control over his life and telling him what to do. “You sure? Now?”  
“I am. Now run, Barry, run.”  
Barry was afraid that if he knocked on Oliver’s apartment door, he would look through the peephole, see Barry, and refuse to talk to him. On the other hand, speeding in through the door would probably cause Oliver not to talk to him as well, so there was no safe way to go. He decided to knock.  
Luckily, Oliver was too tired to check who was at the door before opening it. “Barry? Why are you here?”  
“I have to explain what happened.”  
“There’s nothing to explain. I get it.”   
The plain apathy on his face was worse than any other emotion Barry could have prepared for. Angry Oliver, sad Oliver, frustrated Oliver, even hateful Oliver, all of these Barry could have handled- he had before. But apathetic Oliver was the worse one of all. After a few long moments of Oliver staring Barry down, he turned around and walked in leaving the door open, so Barry took that as an invitation inside. He didn’t even have the time to consider the fact he was shivering and dripping water everywhere after running half the way from Central to Star City in the pouring rain.  
“I never meant for you to think I don’t want this,” Barry began to explain. “Because I do. So, so much. I just… I didn’t want to hurt you.”  
It was these words that made Oliver turn around and face Barry. “You didn’t want to hurt me?” He narrowed his eyes with angry disbelief.   
Barry rubbed the back of his neck, realizing it couldn’t get any worse than it was now. “I-I-I know that it’s probably too late now, that you won’t even forgive me, but I thought you should hear the whole story. That night, back then, it was…” Barry tried to take Oliver’s hand, but the latter didn’t reciprocate, the closeness of their fingertips sending shivers down both the men’s backs. “It was amazing. It was the only time I’ve been truly… content, in a very long time. But I was a mess of a human being back then- I mean I still am, but in a totally different way- and I proved to be toxic to everyone else around me, and I thought I might get into a relationship with someone else- you just, you didn’t deserve all of that. It took me so long to understand what I had, what we had, but I finally did, and I cannot apologize enough for all the mess I caused. This is all my fault. I am so, so sorry.”  
The archer crossed his arms on his chest, keeping his careless expression on, though seemingly it got more difficult for him to do. “Okay.”  
Barry raised his eyebrows. It was his turn to be upset. “Okay? That’s all you’re going to say, okay? I know this is all my fault but I just ran here in the middle of the night, in the rain, just so I can talk to you, so I think I deserve to know what you feel?”  
“You want to know what I feel?” Oliver pointed a finger at Barry’s chest, closing most of the distance between the two (a/n: mostly for a dramatic effect. He does this all the time). “I feel like a couple weeks ago you came here, seeking my help about nothing in particular, and you ended up warming up to me in a way no one had in a very long time. You left without saying goodbye, so I assumed you had an emergency back home, though you never coming back to explain was a pretty bad sign. I feel like when I saw you tonight, I let all that slip away because I was just so happy to see you again, and yes, I was a bit tipsy, but have been through much worse in my life than a friendly dinner. I feel like you showing up, you reciprocating every bit of… affection I showed, was a supposed to be a good sign. But then you took it back. I feel like you left me hanging, Barry, for the second time. How else am I supposed to feel?”  
There were tears welling up in Oliver’s deep blue eyes, piercing right through Barry’s heart. He never felt so helpless, so ashamed, and so regretful before.   
“I was scared. I needed time to think- to understand. I never thought you’d be so… so assured of yourself. So trustful of me. More trustful of me than I am of me. I had to trust myself to never hurt you again.”  
“And do you?”  
“I told you, I’m a mess. I don’t think I could ever promise you that, Ollie. But I trust you would never hurt me.” He gently put his hand at the base of Oliver’s head, right under his jaw.  
Oliver raised one eyebrow. “You really shouldn’t. Just… just let me trust you. We’ll see how it goes.”  
Barry smiled. “We’ll see how it goes, then,” He said and leaned in to kiss Oliver. His face was still heated up from the anger before, and his were lips dry, but the kiss was more gentle than any others they’d shared. He felt Oliver’s fingers brushing through his wet hair, water dropping down both his arms and Barry’s back. Barry couldn’t help a giggle, breaking the kiss.  
“You’re soaking wet.” Oliver stated, pulling Barry into a hug.  
“So… I’ve warmed up to you like no one ever did?”  
“Shut up.”


End file.
